Friday, January 18, 2008

God help me; I have cell phone lust.

Today marks the end of an era. The era when I made a parenting decision and stuck by my guns is over. Unfortunately. Because up 'til now, I haven't been the sort of person to cave just because someone whines, or pouts, or tells me that all the other kids have a (desired object).

But I just ordered my daughter a cell phone. Which I had vigorously resisted doing.

Her birthday's on Monday. She'll be 11. Viewed objectively in the cold, clear light of the internet, she's really too young to own a cell phone. Right? I mean, she loses things. A lot. Also, she has Asperger's Syndrome, which affects social interaction, which means she doesn't have dozens of little tween-aged friends to talk to and IM and text. Well, actually, she doesn't have any little tween-aged friends. So whom is she planning to call, anyway?

Oh, wait a minute. Me. If she has a charged cell phone on her person, in case of some scheduling snafu or other semi-emergency, she'll be able to call me. Even better, I'll be able to call her.

Although if she does have a charged cell phone on her person during a crisis situation? I'll have all the proof I need that I really did bring the wrong baby home from the hospital.

Anyway, I went to the Cingular website and ordered her a free phone--who cares about the model, the important thing is that it's red--and the cheapest possible monthly plan, and some limited texting ability, and an insurance plan for if when she loses it.

And then I fell sick in love with this:People, it does everything. And it has a qwerty keyboard. And GPS and satellite radio. And MicroSoft Office. And tethers to a laptop as a mobile high-speed modem. WANT.

Unfortunately, it costs even more than an iPhone. And have I ever tapped into even a quarter of what my Razr can do? No, I have not.

So what. I don't care. Lust is irrational, and this is lust talking here. WANT.

Most providers have *insurance* but it costs something like $3 to $5 a month. So depending on how long your kid has it before they lose it, it either pays off or you've spent that much money on insurance that you would have spent for a new phone anyway, lol. My daughter was almost 12 and my son almost 14 when we got them their cellphones. They just got to upgrade to new ones last year. He settled for a free one. She had to have one that was gonna cost. So we told her since it was something she *wanted* and not necessary, she was paying for it. So she did. $100 of her own money after the discounts. And then the pervy little dork at the Verizon counter was so smitten with my FOURTEEN year old that he gave her a Bluetooth headset, a leather case and a car charger. The little snot. I need to take her shopping with me more often. We also ended up changing our plan to one that includes unlimited text pic and video messaging to and from ANY provider. Otherwise we'd go broke with the text messaging queen of the universe on our plan.

Poppy -- I think you'll find this interesting -- I sure did. When I was at BlogOrlando last year, a mom talked about how using Twitter, she and her son (who has Asberger's)had found a whole new way to communicate. He would post what he was doing and thinking and she could follow along and respond. It opened up a whole new world for her. I applaud any tool that helps communication in families.

Okay, I don't even know what that thing in the picture IS. Kewl technology is totally wasted on the likes of me.

Also, the boy child got a cell phone when he started 6th grade this year. We came up with an ironclad ritual/routine for where he carries it and when and what he does with it when he's home, and so far it's worked out okay. Of course, now that I've said that, you know what will happen.